Most modern computers have a reduced energy consumption mode for energy conservation. One such mode is known as a “sleep” mode. In a sleep mode, all unnecessary components are shut down or put into a minimum power consumption mode to save energy, which usually requires a further sequence a device activation process before they can be used in a normal operation mode. “Standby” mode is another type of reduced energy consumption mode which uses even less energy than sleep mode and therefore requires more time to “wake up.” One example of the operation of a sleep mode can be seen in battery-operated devices, such as notebook computers. When a notebook computer goes into sleep mode, it shuts down the display screen and disk drive. When the computer is “awakened”, it resumes normal power consumption and operating status.
There are several state-of-the-art approaches to awaken a computer from sleep mode. The most common way is to awaken the computer upon the user's moving or clicking a mouse or striking a key on the keyboard. Ethernet “magic packets,” i.e., special bitstreams that wake up the system remotely through an Ethernet connection, can also be used. Similarly, a modem ring detect can wake the computer when a call is received by its modem. A similar approach uses firewire.
When a machine readable removable media such as a CD-ROM is inserted into a peripheral device while its computer system is in sleep mode, however, the computer system does nothing. Thus, there is a need for automatically waking a computer from sleep mode upon the insertion of a removable media into a peripheral device connected to the computer.